PARTISAN REVIEW
self-awareness of man as "a forgotten and self-forgotten god." It is dif–
ficult to remind him of his being first-born; this is already forgotten by
the savage. The philosophy of culture in the mouth of my Prometheus,
is
my
philosophy:
...
To trade,
to practice art, wage war, and calculate,
to rule, to be a slave-so that
in the noise of days, in care, in lust,
in dreams one should forget the freedom
direct and whole of being. And the savage
will wander in the wilderness, sunk in gloom.
The savage or he who became like the savage, having become
"simple" under the spell of oblivion, does not enjoy his empty freedom;
he is gloomy and downcast.
And in order not to be "a downcast guest on dark earth" there is
only one way-fiery death in the spirit.
Dixi.
V.I.
XII.
To V. I. Ivanov:
You are angry: this is a bad sign. Irritated by my deafness you
place me in the ranks of the "self-simplifiers" who do "not recall their
kin" and you even abuse me as a member of the "intelligentsia" (while,
shrewd as you are, you flatter yourself-a son of the Russian land, and
in addition a disciple from Sais!). What angers you most of all is that I
stubbornly assert my
Sic volo,
and refuse to argue. But this is not true:
I argue with you all the time. For instance, in your last letter you main–
tain two things: first, that culture itself in its further development will
lead us to the primal sources of life; all that is needed is zealously to
march forward-at the end of the road, you say, the desired light will
shine forth, "cold springs will break forth from between the old slabs,
and rose bushes will bud from the gray tombs," i.e., culture, which is at
present worthless will in its ultimate dissolution re-acquire its pristine
virginity.
To this I answer: I don't believe it, and I see no reason for think–
ing so; only a miracle transforms a sinner into Saint Mary Magdalene.
Such is, you think, the one way-the spontaneous evolution of culture.
But this forecast of yours is in contradiction with your second thesis–
that every man should overcome culture by fiery death in the spirit. For
either one of the two: if culture in its own development leads us un–
deviatingly to God-1, an individual, need not bother; I can calmly con-
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